Villa of Tiron
About
The villa at Tiron overlooked the Loire from a mid-slope terrace between Tours and the border of Maine-et-Loire, its masonry laid directly over an older farmstead's storage pits by the second half of the 1st century CE. Archaeologists excavated the site ahead of the A85 motorway's construction, recording its full plan before the road destroyed the remains. The estate stayed occupied for roughly a century and a half, until the start of the 3rd century, working land alongside five or six other villas strung along the same riverbank. In 117 CE the house had already stood on its terrace above the river for decades.
What happened here
A working estate with a comfortable house attached, and the proportions vary with how rich the owner is and how often he visits. The farm side has presses for oil and wine, threshing floors, storage sunk into the ground, stables and quarters for the workforce. The residential side has baths, dining rooms sited for the view, mosaics, and a garden with water in it. A manager runs the place year-round and reports; the owner arrives for the vintage and for the summer. Produce goes to market or to the owner's town house, and the accounts are kept in detail. Some villas are pure retreat with no farm at all, built on a cliff or a lake specifically to be looked at from a boat.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →